A Marine Existence
by that's an awfully real gun
Summary: Set mid New Moon. What if something or someone... got to Bella before Jake did when she jumped?  First fic etc etc This is just rather experimental and all! rated T for safety
1. Raging Waters

**Right then...first fanfic! Please enjoy, read, tell me what you think etc etc...  
(first paragraph and a bit from new moon page 361)  
I do not own Twilight - woe is me.**

"No! Bella, no!"

My ears were flooded with the freezing water, but his voice was clearer than ever. I ignored his words and concentrated on the sound of his voice. Why would I fight when I was so happy where I was? Even as my lungs burned for more air and my legs cramped in the icy cold, I was content. I'd forgotten what real happiness felt like.

Happiness. It made the whole dying thing pretty bearable.

The current won at that point. I was dragged down, floating in brine and bliss. My vision was dark, my ears rang with Edward's voice – that was musical, even in anger - and I felt strangely warm. I had the strange sensation of being pulled down by many hands, by cool arms that wrapped around me, vaguely reminding me of Edward's embrace.

Ice cool water rushed into my lungs, and in my mentally altered state, I felt my consciousness slipping away. For what, for some strange reason, felt like the last time, I remembered. I remembered my first glimpse of Edward, his black eyes filled with hatred. I remembered Alice's dancing step, Jasper's wary distance. Emmett's booming laugh and Rosalie's hostile glare, Carlisle's calm control and Esme's loving smile.

I remembered Edward's breath as it blew across my face, his liquid eyes when he dazzled me. I remembered the small movements that were too quick for me to catch, how he would always catch me. His crooked smile, his melodious laugh, the emotion that shone from his eyes when he told me he loved me. I remembered his straight face, devoid of care when he told me that it had all been a lie, that he didn't love me.

He wasn't there to catch me this time when I fell.


	2. Off Seashores Unmapped

**Woo I did another chapter! Any suggestions are welcome (especially help with the spelling/grammar/sentence structure), but I don't mind any reviews of course - if they say that you all hate it then I shall just try and find comfort that you read it...sniff  
Anyway enjoy!  
Disclaimer : Je ne possede Twilight pas! (yes I spelt it wrong but it's the thought that counts...)**

**Bella PoV:**

I swam lithe through the current, enjoying the exhilarating speed. Though I was serious in what I was doing – hunting – I couldn't resist closing my eyes and allowing the scent of my prey to guide me through the water. The storm overhead would have worried some, but I revelled in it, rejoicing as I leaped through the towering waves in pursuit of my food.

I enjoyed this life, I could ask for no other. I had chosen this existence.

**Alice PoV:**

I saw her as I was shopping. I was wondering through racks of dresses, gloomily evaluating style, material and price on each. With a pang of regret I saw a navy dress with a beaded bodice that would have set off Bella's skin perfectly. I missed her horribly, and as I began to mope, an image flashed before my eyes. Bella, on top of a cliff. A storm, making the water deadly beneath her.

I rushed into a changing room and sat down with the curtain pulled across, allowing the vision to take hold of me. Bella, sweet Bella who we had left so suddenly, jumped from the cliff. I could hear her scream. What had we done? I saw her hit the water, and the vision began to fade as she went under. However, before it went, I was snapped into another perspective, new colour and energy rushing into it. Someone else had made a decision. I now saw her as though I was underneath the water, looking up at her struggling figure from below. I saw shapes surround her, silhouetted. I seemed to move towards her with them. Silver-green limbs pulled her towards the depths; shimmering hair swirled around obscuring what I could see. My vision faded completely now, but not before I caught a final glimpse of Bella.

She had become one of them.

I rushed out of the store as fast as my legs could carry me. I needed to find out more. Why had she jumped? Oh, yeah, stupid question – but I never thought Bella would be one for suicide...

As I rushed into Tanya's house, Jasper caught hold of me to stop me from actually running through the wall.

"Hey, Alice my love, calm down now - what is it?" He wrapped his arms around me to stop me struggling and brought his face down to look at mine, his eyes searching. Evidently he felt my stress and panic.

I could only choke out a few words.

"Bella...cliff...storm...something...taken!" Jasper understood at once.

"Carlisle! Alice has had a vision! It's about Bella!" He was shouting – without need, but that was just because he knew it was urgent. All our family still cared about Bella a lot, even if we couldn't see her.

Soon everyone had sat down, except for the one obvious exception. Jasper, Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Rosalie and I were staying with Tanya, in Denali. Jasper had succeeded in calming me into coherence, so now I took a deep breath and told everyone of my vision.

Esme looked worried, her forehead creased into a deep frown. Emmett looked torn between confusion and anger – confusion at the beings that had taken, and it seemed changed, Bella and anger a our brother for making us leave her, making her jump. Jasper's face was screwed with concentration as he struggled to take control of not only his emotions but also the jumble of everyone else's. Rosalie looked uncomfortable - I suspected for all her outward hostility she had most likely become rather fond of Bella. Carlisle on the other hand looked calm as ever, and he was first to speak after I had finished.

"At least she isn't gone," he began "Bella, it seems, has joined the ranks of the merpeople. She is alive, in the same way we are, and now shall live for a lot longer, probably a similar length to many of us. However, the matter remains as to what we do about it. What you suggest? That we leave her be or that we try to make contact?"

We all looked around at each other for a minute.

Finally I asked the question that was burning on my mind, and was probably on those of the others too.

"How do you know this? I mean I guessed, but you're sure of this?"

Carlisle sighed. "Well I'm sure because from your description, then this is exactly what has happened. I never told any of you this, because it all happened a long, long time ago, decades before I changed any of you. There was a reason other than the weather that I wanted to move to Forks. There are other beings there too, extraordinary beings, that humans do not know about. I met one of them while I was searching for others, long ago..."

**Bella PoV:**

When I had first woken to this life, I knew nothing, not even of what I had been before. Some had helped me, and now they were my friends. Together we existed, feeding and doing what we felt was our duty – guiding those who got lost in our terrain. There were many names for us – merpeople, sirens, nymphs – but we preferred to keep the legends as just that, legends. We stayed hidden, blending in, camouflaged perfectly, with our surroundings.

I had caught my prey now. A marlin – my teeth ripped into its flesh as I thought with a grimace of what our more natural diet was. Cousins of my shoal didn't help sailors, they deliberately lured them onto rocks, to feast on their warm flesh.

However, my shoal was different. From what I had learnt our leader – Prospero – had once encountered one of another kind, who also would have otherwise killed humans to feed, but had tried for an alternative prey and found one. The two beings were drawn together by loneliness, and a need for company, so had both resolved to try and make their way peacefully with mankind, and to help where they could, before parting their ways. So, we, the merpeople, helped those in trouble, doing our best for those in need. I had been one such in need, but when the shoal had seen that I was going to drown, they accepted me into their midst.

I could hear one of them calling for me now. Irène – we had become close in the time I had lived with them. When we called each other we sang, singing that was often attributed to whales by humans, because they couldn't understand our wordless communication. Each one of us had our own song, distinct. When we sang together, we sounded beautiful, to our ears anyway.

With a sigh I turned from my nourishment and dove down deep, to our caverns at the bottom of the deep blue sea.

**If people are wondering about the chapter names, they come from lyrics. Sorry I should have included in the disclaimer! They are all so far from various albums by Joanna Newsom.**


	3. What is this craziness?

**I'm so sorry for the wait - it being summer I have been away and doing things! Please forgive me! I've stayed up to finish this chapter just for you, to make up. Thank you to all my reviewers by the way, you are all beautiful people and I appreciate that you've taken a moment to tell me what you think. And just a little moan - Eclipse does not come out here in England until October. October I tell you! Luckily I've convinced my mum to ship a copy (from a store in Florida apparently) so I should have it soon, but the tension's almost killed me already!**

Disclaimer: I characters do not own you recognise. (sorry I've been watching Star Wars - go Yoda!)

Esme PoV:

It was decided now. After Carlisle had told us all of his meeting with Prospero, and how the vampire and the merman had both agreed to coexist with humans without them knowing, we had all debated on what we should do next. Although we all desperately wanted to see Bella, to console her, some reluctantly pointed out that maybe she would adjust better to new life without interference from us. In the end however, our need to know how she was, whether she was happy, got the better of us. We agreed that we would make contact, with Prospero, the leader of her shoal, and see if we could meet her. Then, depending on her reaction to us, one of us would try to find Edward.

Edward had become a recluse when we left, now all we knew was that he was grieving somewhere. This hurt me, my son inflicting such great pain on himself, although in a way it made me proud that he cared for Bella so much that he felt obliged to do so.

We would fly to Port Angeles, hunt near there and then hit the water immediately. Carlisle had warned us that the range of Prospero's shoal was immense, covering most of the coast from Washington to north California, so we might be some time searching. We needed only to find one of them, but that could take days of swimming. Still, we would go to any length to find our Bella.

Bella PoV:

"Hello Thetis, the shoal are meeting. We have things to discuss – about you." I had follow Irène's call to our 'home', the caverns where she was now leading me to the main chamber. Holding my hand, she dragged me through the water. I thought of the name that they had given me. Thetis, the name of the sea nymph of Greek mythology. As we reached the chamber, she smiled before taking her place in the circle of the shoal.

I had learnt that where meetings were concerned, a system of ritual governed what was done. To start, a rhyming couplet opened the discussion, then people could speak. As I moved to complete the circle, I looked round at the faces that I had been trying to memorize. Prospero, our wise leader, with Lucilla his partner, who had guided me through my first days as I was. Around them, their 'children.' Irène, Joanna and Carl – twins – Sid, Artemis and Fenris. They were all couples, somewhat disconcertingly. Irène and Fenris had become part of the shoal at similar time, so had been drawn to each other. Or so she had told me. I still felt new here, despite everyone's efforts to make me feel welcome.

The meeting was starting now. I gathered my rambling thoughts and focused.

"Thetis, beloved daughter of the sea,

Your shoal meets here to speak with thee"

Prospero glided to the centre of the circle, some force pulled me to do the same. It was slightly disconcerting, but I was used to that confused feeling now. Strange stuff just happened in this new llife.

"Thetis, dear one," Prospero started in his voice that, though rough like a weather-beaten sailor , always sounded as though he was reciting prose "Is your new life flowing smooth as the wave? Has trouble yet passed your way?"

I answered as truthfully as possible. Was there a purpose behind his scrutiny?

"Not really..."

"My child, you are hesitant – pray, tell more!"

"Well," They were all going to laugh at me so much after this. "When I was hunting marlin just now, I was trying to put myself in the marlin's place, to think like it, as Lucilla told me to. Then, as I was swimming, I actually felt like the marlin, I saw some smaller fish go past and wanted to chase them. I think...I think I had a tail. I'm sorry, it sounds really silly."

I had found that people of the shoal could still blush, yet we went bottle green instead of crimson. So, doing this with all my might I stared down at my feet, feeling exceptionally childish, as though I was admitting to eating all of the biscuits or something. My flipper-feet waved a little in the mild current, and I watched them as I waited for Prospero to respond.

No one laughed. When I brought my head up in shock, Prospero was looking at me as if calculating something.

"That does interest me my dear. Would you mind thinking like a marlin here, in front of us? I would like to see if something is the case."

I did as he said. No matter how polite Prospero seemed, I had worked out that you did as he said. Once Irène had told me of what he had done to someone who didn't – it wasn't nice. Prospero was lovely in a good mood, but once scorned, he was terrible. So, I imagined the scales of my skin, my legs bound in a tail, with powerful muscles running along it. As I 'thought like a marlin' I wondered what the purpose of this was. What was it they weren't telling me?

Just as I was thinking this somebody gasped. Joanna had her hands to her mouth and they were all gazing at me as if I were a fresh meal, some nice tuna. Prospero beamed.

"Now, think normally, dear Thetis."

I did so, and everyone gasped again. What was all this about?

**Hehehe more tomorrow maybe...**

Just so you know, I'm vegetarian and so do not know if tuna is nice or not, or marlin for that matter but hey! You've probably all guessed what Prospero is getting at but anyway...

Was Esme's PoV a good idea? I just needed someone and I haven't seen her's a lot.

As always, spelling/ grammar corrections are welcome.


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